KUALA LUMPUR: Today Malaysian govt officials defended the decision to allow Islamic televangelist Dr. Zakir Naik to remain here as part of his permanent residency status as the preacher accused of extremism is behaving and adopting ‘typically Malaysian’ habits.

“Dr. Zakir has told the Indian government desperate to question him over alleged terrorist activities and money laundering, that he was ‘on the way’ when in fact, he hadn’t actually left home yet is a sure sign he is acclimatising to the Malaysian way of life.”

Experts say Dr Zakir was also found he had much in common with senior Malaysian officials after his habit of setting up shell companies to secretly launder money internationally was made public.